5 Big Retailers That’ll Be Gone in 5 Years

I wanted to share this information on the continue change with the economy and how stores can come and go as a way of competition. As well give a heads up to other users on how the highly possible demise of these stores will shake up the market. This is not a conspiracy. Sorry if this is i the wrong board.

Pop quiz: Which public company had the highest market capitalization of all time when adjusted for inflation? Here's a hint, it shares the same fate as Borders, Woolworth, Circuit City and Blockbuster. In other words, it went bankrupt and disappeared taking loyal shareholders' money with it. Before I give you the answer, it's time for a hard fact: Companies are no different than dogs, grandparents or houseplants; they're born, they live and eventually die. There are no exceptions. The answer to the quiz is The Dutch East India Company. Formed in 1602 to carry out colonial activities for the Dutch government, its stock was valued at over $7.4 trillion at the height of the tulip bubble in 1637. In 1798 the company went bankrupt and was officially dissolved two years later.

Source
The companies listed are Staples, J.C. Penney, Sears, Radio Shack, and Barnes and Noble. I can recall shopping at each of these stores numerous times. Since I have started becoming more interested in economics I do capitalism is built around completion. Retailers and stores must compete in order to survive. That is why prices change, different goods are marketed, etc. Which can cause problems between workers and customers. With these five stories possibly closing their doors I can imagine how many workers will be let go. As well the customers having to buy their various items some where else. It can be argue these countries are not great with customers. However, stores offer most of what the average Joe needs to live. Like food, clothes, etc. I would like to get other users feedback on this subject.

Radio Shack was bought out by BCE Inc. (Bell Communications). Bell then changed the name to "The Source" (The Source).

and I can give you the reason why they will fail.. all of them have one thing in common.. They are to exspensive compared to other stores... I went to radio shack the other day to get an hdmi cable they were $18 for a 6'.. I walked next door to HEB a grocery store here that I just wanetd to see if maybe they had them and maybe cheaper... $11 later I had a new HEB HDMI 6' cable that works great.

EVERYTHING radioshack and all of these stores sell can be bought at other stores cheaper with better selections or just bought only which is even easier all together unless you really need something like i needed a cable asap becaues I didnt want to wait for one online

so yah you either get with the times and keep prices comparable with other retail or you go under.

Worked ast Sears, they are trying to become an Internet showroom. "Don't see it on the floor? We can order it for you online on our iPad!" I guess it could work if they keep stock low at locations, but there were a lot of things that made me facepalm while working there. The biggest issue is the way they push credit. It's like you can't get out without the old spotlight-in-a-smokey-room treatment.

sorry repost

reply to post by dc4lifeskater


Exactly as stores like Walmart can offer cheap discounts that will usher in huge business. However, that can cause stores to run out of products. It's way confusing.

Originally posted by RedShirt73
Radio Shack was bought out by BCE Inc. (Bell Communications). Bell then changed the name to "The Source" (The Source).

edit on 11-4-2013 by RedShirt73 because: (no reason given)

edit on 11-4-2013 by RedShirt73 because: (no reason given)

Only in Canada, I believe. Radio Shack is still kicking in the U.S.

reply to post by dc4lifeskater

I used to work at FutureShop and was surprised to find out how much markup that's actually put on some items. For example: I can remember looking at a simple HP USB cable (6 Foot), the company bought it at around $4.00 and sold it for about $35.00 after markup.

Originally posted by AnonymousCitizen

Originally posted by RedShirt73
Radio Shack was bought out by BCE Inc. (Bell Communications). Bell then changed the name to "The Source" (The Source).

edit on 11-4-2013 by RedShirt73 because: (no reason given)

edit on 11-4-2013 by RedShirt73 because: (no reason given)

Only in Canada, I believe. Radio Shack is still kicking in the U.S.

Are they as crappy as the ones we had up here, lol.

reply to post by Phoenix267


JCPenney was horrifically mismanaged by the former Apple CO (whose name escapes me right now). They spent alot of capital redoing the inside of the stores and redoing their merchandise lines. Epic fail. Why? They lost track of their customer "base." If you want über trendy, upscale size 2 ladies wear go to Nordstroms (or even Macy's). Not JCP. In mall locations (where JCP and Sears both have stores) Sears saw an uptick in clothing/houseware sales...why? Price point and products (clothes/colors/sizes) that the middle aged demographic "wants."

JCP needs to totally rehab it's image to get those mid price range (I want a coupon sale!) customers back.

Originally posted by RedShirt73

Originally posted by AnonymousCitizen

Originally posted by RedShirt73
Radio Shack was bought out by BCE Inc. (Bell Communications). Bell then changed the name to "The Source" (The Source).

edit on 11-4-2013 by RedShirt73 because: (no reason given)

edit on 11-4-2013 by RedShirt73 because: (no reason given)

Only in Canada, I believe. Radio Shack is still kicking in the U.S.

Are they as crappy as the ones we had up here, lol.

That's an affirmative.

Businesses need to adapt or die. With sites like Amazon and Newegg, brick and mortar storefronts need to, not only reexamine their pricing structure, but change the way they treat customers to survive in the new marketplace.

I've read that other big box stores, like Best Buy, are contemplating charging customers a 'browsing' fee when entering their establishments, only to be refunded upon buying something. This is their last grasp.

These corporations build these, huge, concrete cathedrals to electronics and consumer goods throughout the 80's and 90's only to find themselves with tens of thousands of showroom space with no customers to fill it.

Sigh. Looks like we're going to have a lot of empty buildings helping to beautify communities throughout the US.

reply to post by RedShirt73


yah i use to do some computer work for best buy on contract to replace pos systems and we have to test them when we were done so we would scan products and we have 3 different prices come up...

for example usb cable 6'

Best buys cost: $1.50
employee cost: $15 if I remember correctly
and customer cost: $33

after that i never shop at best buy again even though i really didnt shop there much anyways... all those places are rip offs..

to address the issue of running out of stocks for selling things low I have never had that problem with a walmart because of the way they do their stock its all automated stock reorder sytem when they get down to a certain number of items they get in a truck with more.. I have rarely seen walmart not have something i wanted when I went there unless it was something super popular.. I don't agree with everything walmart does but I do shop there allot and I can't really afford to shop other places most of the time.

reply to post by dc4lifeskater


Used to work for Wal-Mart too. Night shift when I was in university. Trust me, they throw out more merchandise in one night then I'd care to count. I mean they throw out everything (ie. food, clothes, electronics, etc.). Literally 10's of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise in the garbage.

Radioshack, yeah, their prices are beyond anyone else, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x any other place. And having an audio cable with "Radioshack" embedded on it doesn't make you want to buy it more, I'd rather get a cheap version of that very same cable at the dollar store. I can see that store only making a profit at Xmas time. As for the other stores, this thing called capitalism is not evil, competition is what it's all about, if you cannot compete you must adapt or die.

Sears should seriously break out their tool/hardware department into a stand alone which could actually survive the collapse of the rest of the store. Craftsman tools are pretty much the best quality to price ration in the tool world. Sure, you can take it in the shorts and pay 3 times the price for MAC or Snap On, but unless you're running a shop and can write it off as a business expense, it simply doesn't make much sense.

I also question Barnes & Noble fully shutting down. They're the last bookstore standing right now. Despite the popularity of e-books with the little pop-edge crowd that quickly assimilates to the new fads, the majority of the country still enjoys reading words printed on processed tree fibers. As much as I hate to admit this (since I've done a ton of read and leave missions at B&N over the years), they need to remove the comfy seats and start hasseling campers who grab a stack of magazines or books and then leave without spending a dime. It is a bookstore, not a library... in no business model does giving your product away for free equal higher profits.

reply to post by burdman30ott6


I agree I have always liked craftsman and its a good brand with good prices i think thats pretty much what is holding sears up likely..

The big book stores are going to close they are going to be replaced with smaller chain book stores like the ones popping up all over that are super cheap and they do exchanges and buy/sell used books.. not many people are collecting books or keeping them anymore they want to read them 1-3 times and then trade them our for ones they havent read and pay the difference like with gamestop doing games.

We want to go somewhere...that's why we go to stores. Internet shopping has affected in-store shopping, but it will be some time before the latter is completely displaced by the former. Five years is not enough time for that to happen, maybe five generations...I see myself as being the first generation of this transition, or the last of the "store" only mentality...hard to say, because its not clean cut.

My reason for bringing this up is specifically Barnes and noble. Borders is gone and walden, if I'm not mistaken, is owned by B&N. I can't see "the bookstore", as a concept, being gone in 5 years' time. B&N is the 'only' bookstore left in the homogenization process we are currently living through (monopolies/conglomeration of retail eventually leading to a semi-socialist/semi-capitalist...I.e., fascist...system).

Walmart has worked hard in its "join us or die" business model, whereby it consumes competition or wipes it off the map with volume and/or buying power. All businesses of any corporate merit are following this model. Starbucks has gone so far as to saturate its local markets, eventually canibalizing it's own small franchisees in the name of killing all other competition. I can think of few non-Starbucks coffee franchises, and most are regional, with no where near the brand recognition as Starbucks.

Walmart is in a similar boat. Kmart and Target are the only two I can think of, and Kmart is on it's way out....has been hooked up to the respirator for a while now. Walmart and Target seem to be in a stale mate, with only brand-class identification differentiating them in their duopoly...I'd say they end up merging and becoming two sides of the same coin (more so than they already are as competitors).

Back to Barnes & Noble: They seem to be the first company to totally become the Brand of the Market", so to speak. The linguist in me wouldn't be surprised if their brand name hasn't begun to exist in free variation with, if not utterly supplant, the word "bookstore" in the English of young Americans, much the same as Coke accomplished in the South, or Kleenex even.

When Staples goes, Office Depot will be the B&N of stationary and office supplies. When RadioShack goes, Bestbuy and CompUSA will narrow their markets and one will come out victorious in the long run (hasn't circuit city been gone for a while now?). HomeDepot and Lowes seem to have the same duopoly system that Walmart and Target have created - where each fulfills more of an identity in the consumer than any other palpable product distinction.